Dolorés Gelo Suárez, a 70-year-old retired cleaner, lives alone in a home filled with religious decorations and relies on a state pension worth “a few hundred” euros a month.

Still, she recently donated €14,000, or almost $18,000, to make a gold-laced tunic that will be worn by a statue of the Virgin Mary and then carried on Sunday by members of her religious brotherhood during one of Andalusia’s traditional Easter processions.

Meanwhile in Olivares, a neighboring town of 9,500, another brotherhood was also preparing a Virgin statue for its Easter procession, this one adorned with a gold crown. The crown was made after melting down necklaces, rings, ancient coins and other gold objects worth tens of thousands of euros, after they were donated last year by 300 members of the brotherhood.